Ex-Stocktonian, fallen crew to be honored

SACRAMENTO - One year ago today, Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer John Seidman took off in a seemingly routine search-and-rescue mission 15 miles east of San Clemente Island.

The Record

SACRAMENTO - One year ago today, Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer John Seidman took off in a seemingly routine search-and-rescue mission 15 miles east of San Clemente Island.

The 43-year-old man raised in Stockton never returned.

Seidman was one of seven crew members aboard a Lockheed C-130H Hercules aircraft that collided in midair with a U.S. Marine Corps Bell AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter. There were two crewmen aboard the Marine training flight. The helicopter crew was looking for a missing boater 50 miles off the Southern California coast.

All nine members of the military perished. Eyewitnesses reported seeing a fireball in the sky.

Today the tragedy will be marked in a remembrance ceremony at the Coast Guard Air Station at the former McClellan Air Force Base.

The event also will serve as a ceremonial groundbreaking for a memorial being built in their honor.

Coast Guard members, family and friends have collaborated to establish the memorial as an inspirational symbol of the sacrifice of the crew of Rescue 1705.

Seidman, who grew up in a quiet neighborhood south of the Calaveras River, attended Cleveland Elementary School and Hamilton Middle School. He graduated from Franklin High School in 1984. Two years later, he enlisted in the Coast Guard, where he became a flight engineer and had served for 23 years.

His parents, Bill and Connie Seidman, still live in Stockton. His father is a 70-year-old retired military officer.

John Seidman lived in Carmichael. He left behind his wife, Jennifer Wiegandt, and three stepchildren.

A joint investigation into the accident by the Coast Guard and the Marine Corps is ongoing.